Articles
It does make a difference
…
Is it sales and marketing or marketing and sales?
by John GrahamWithout exception, every salesperson is a marketer, although often times
a frustrated one. To prove the point, recall what salespeople are always
talking about. They never stop trying to figure out a way to grab the customer’s
attention, find the customer’s pain or push a customer’s hot
button. But that’s not sales––it’s marketing.
When salespeople speak this way, they think they’re just trying to figure
out how to get the order. In reality, they’re actually attempting to get
inside the customer’s head. They know if they can do that, they will get
the customer to say “yes.”
No matter what you call it, this is marketing .
As amazing as it may seem, marketers often fail to confront the issue
of the relationship of marketing to sales. Somehow or other, they sidestep
the unavoidable fact that marketing and sales are not only two sides
of the same coin but marketing is heads.
Savvy salespeople get the message. They are forever looking for ways
to attract customers. They are constantly seeking “marketing
support,”
be it direct mail, letters, advertising, brochures, newsletters, web
presence or email campaigns.
Isn’t this what they mean when they say, “We need something
new to sell,” “Our prices are too high” or “Can’t
we offer an some incentive?” They’re looking for something
that sets them apart from the competition.
Again, this is marketing.
Here’s the point: Marketing creates a proper environment
with customers and prospects for salespeople to be successful in closing
deals. The marketing task is to influence how customers think
and feel about a company and its products and services. It’s
then that salespeople can do their best work.
One of the most dramatic examples is the marketing of the Apple iPod
and iShuffle. Legions of consumers ignore lower priced products because
they want Apple. This is pure marketing.
Yet, there are company owners, high-level managers, CEOs, sales managers
and others who are quick to say, “We don’t need marketing;
we need sales and we need them now.” You can hear them pound
the table and beat the drum every day, but if they just took 20 seconds
to reflect on the issue, they would recognize the problem is not sales.
The fundamental problem is not having enough customers who want to
buy what your company is selling. Either they don’t know about
it; or they don’t understand it; or they don’t appreciate
the value. These are the daunting hurdles that affect every salesperson,
but they should not be labeled “sales problems.”
Those are classic marketing issues and primary examples of marketing failures.
Overcome these hurdles and it’s far easier for the sales force
to hit its stride and cross the finish line of the sales race.
If this analysis is accurate, then there are some interesting implications
for every sales department. Here are several:
1. Every sales manager and salesperson should be uncompromising
and outspoken advocates of marketing. It’s only necessary
to look as far Dell Computer to understand the concept. The sales leadership
of Dell is legion, not because it offers cutting-edge products. It
has established itself in the mind of millions of millions of computer
buyers as the company that is the leader in customer satisfaction.
In other words,
“it’s safe to buy Dell.”
Dell has also positioned itself as the value manufacturer. The endless
Dell ads, the stream of newspaper inserts, and the continuous flow
of direct mail make it difficult for other manufacturers to hold on
to market share. Dell’s relentless inroads into H-P’s personal
computer business make the point: it’s all about marketing.
Far too often, salespeople are asked to spend their time pushing gigantic
rocks up one mountain after another. They find themselves trying to
sell products and services to buyers who have no understanding of the
company they represent or the value of the product or service. If this
were true, then why would a buyer bother taking time to speak with
a salesperson? Answer: more and more they don’t.
Salespeople are quick to lament, “If I can just get a chance
to meet with them, they’ll learn all that.” While this
is true, it’s not happening today. Buyers want a comfort
level in advance of meetings, before they commit their time to a salesperson.
The task of marketing is to help create that comfort level.
2. Every sales manager and salesperson should demand that his
or her company’s marketing be based on solid research. Once
again, this seems contrary to how salespeople think. Ask salespeople
if their customers are well informed about the products they sell and
the response will be swift and clear: “Absolutely.”
But a recent survey of business owners conducted for an insurance organization
in Maryland revealed interesting results. Taking a profile of the agency’s
“best” business insurance customers, a group of businesses
was identified in the market area that matched the same qualities.
The survey findings revealed that these insurance buyers were not well
acquainted with their own insurance programs. They lacked a basic understanding
of their insurance coverages. This was measured against the results
of the agency’s business insurance customers, who revealed a
much more complete working knowledge of their insurance.
In this case, as in others, ignorance is far from blissful; it’s
downright detrimental. Armed with this data, the insurance agency conducting
the survey now knows how to develop a marketing strategy for going
after business insurance prospects.
Even though it’s easy to understand why salespeople believe they
understand their customers, it’s not always true. Supported by
a marketing program that’s based on fact and that focuses on
accurate issues, salespeople are in a far better position to attack
the real buyer issues.
3. Every sales manager and salesperson should demand that
marketing open doors. In many industries, salespeople were
expected to find their own leads. Such thinking continues to linger
in some industries. In his book, Clued In, Lewis P. Carbone,
the founder of Experience Engineering, Inc., cuts to the core of the
problem, when he writes, “With modern management fixated almost
solely on the bottom line, the value proposition of far too many businesses
has become increasingly one sided: lots of emphasis on the company
but little on enhancing customer value.”
To put it simply, company-focused businesses don’t attract
customers. For years, Apple was the butt of jokes. For years,
it couldn’t break out of its minute Mac market share. Then it
introduced iPod and history is being written. The marketing of iPod
is growing Macintosh computer sales.
From bottom to top, a sales force should be asking the marketing people
to open doors and to generate leads based on what’s of value
to the customer. In one case, it may an attractive payment plan, as
in the case of today’s high-priced TV sets. It may be doubling
computer memory without charge and offering free shipping.
Giving opens doors. Giving means connecting with what’s important
to customers. For the buyer who pays cash or uses a home equity line
to buy a car, a discount counts most. For the person financing a purchase,
it may be “zero interest.”
Convenience also unlocks customer doors. If you’re in the service
business, guaranteed response time is key, as mattress retailers have
discovered.
The key to effective marketing is opening doors and everyone in sales
has a right to expect marketing to deliver for them.
There’s nothing complicated or esoteric about the relationship
of marketing and sales and some excellent salespeople are marketers
without even realizing it. On December 31, 2004, 81-year-old Mario
Corsaro closed Varese Shoes in Boston’s North End for the last
time. Nearly half a century had passed since the Sicilian immigrant
sold his first pair of shoes in this Italian neighborhood.
While Mario never found his way to nearby Harvard Business School to
take a course in marketing, he could have taught it. He was an expert
marketer. His goal was to make sure each customer always had the right
shoes for a particular occasion.
The Boston Globe captured Corsaro’s simple, clear marketing
philosophy. “It’s about class,” he said. “I
would not allow a customer to leave the store with the wrong shoe even
it they wanted it. I wouldn’t sell it to them. I’d tell
them, ‘I’ll get you the right shoe.’”
If someone had told Mr. Corsaro the customer is always right, he would
have been appalled at the thought.
It may seem that this North End shoe storeowner was out of sync with
much of the business world. Actually, he symbolizes what marketing
is all about: Customer trust, confidence and satisfaction depend
on delivering on the promise of meeting needs and expectations.
Marketing isn’t about dialing for dollars––trying
to find someone to sell something to. That’s a tactic used by
companies trying to dig themselves out of a hole, only to find themselves
in a deeper one.
Marketing establishes credibility so business flows consistently, so
there’s trust and credibility when the company’s name or
product is heard or seen.
Marketing isn’t about the sale; it’s about the customer.
It not about taking the customer; it’s about taking the customer
seriously.
It’s about the customer wanting to come back time and time again.
And it’s being able to go back to customers time and time again
without having the door slammed, phone calls ignored, or mailings tossed
in the trash.
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. He is the author of The New Magnet Marketing and Break the Rules Selling, writes for a variety of business publications, and speaks on business, marketing and sales issues. Contact him at 40 Oval Road, Quincy, MA 02170; 617-328-0069; jgraham@grahamcomm.com.